


(if i could turn back the clock) i'd make sure the light defeated the dark

by manbun_zukka



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: All the realtionships, Angst, Bisexual Hakoda (Avatar), Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Established Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gay Bato (Avatar), Gay Zuko (Avatar), Hakoda and Sokka are both oblivious bisexual idiots, I'm sorry for this, M/M, Secret Relationship, accept for Katara and Aang, and he knows that he and zuko are Close (tm), but he still hasnt put two and two together, but someone had to tell him and it wasnt gonna be sokka, hakoda knows that sokka has a boyfriend, here is the one where hakoda learns about sokka and zuko's trauma, we've got the token straights yall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26452366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manbun_zukka/pseuds/manbun_zukka
Summary: Hakoda had known that he was bisexual for as long as he could remember.It was never a big thing, to him. He liked both men and women, and that was that. He had the freedom to love who he loved, and he was happy with that.He first fell in love when he was seventeen.Bato was his best friend, always had been, always would be, although at some point, Hakoda started seeing him as more. He would never be able to pinpoint an exact moment, a day, even a year. It just happened.When Hakoda was nineteen, he confessed his love. The sun was finally setting after weeks of the Midnight Sun, and the sky was streaked with colors and spirits. Hakoda took Bato to the peak of their glacier, and he told him how he felt.When Hakoda was nineteen, Bato confessed his love.---Or, two truths, a trip to the Fire Nation, a night under the stars, a sword fight, an assasination attempt, and Hakoda realising that they were all just kids.(There's a lot more Zukka in this then is apparent in the summary, I promise.)
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Bato & Sokka (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Hakoda & Sokka (Avatar), Hakoda & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 235





	(if i could turn back the clock) i'd make sure the light defeated the dark

**Author's Note:**

> here it is! this was first supposed to be a one chaptered 5+1, but it's kinda sorta accidentally expanded from there, and become a multi-chaptered angst fest from hell. it's not too angsty, I guess, but it has more ~feelings~ then my usual works. there's not a lot of zukka in this chapter, but I'm actually almost done with the second chapter as well, and there will be more zukka there! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> xx,  
> CJ

Hakoda had known that he was bisexual for as long as he could remember. 

It was never a big thing, to him. He liked both men and women, and that was that. He had the freedom to love who he loved, and he was happy with that.

He first fell in love when he was seventeen. 

Bato was his best friend, always had been, always would be, although at some point, Hakoda started seeing him as more. He would never be able to pinpoint an exact moment, a day, even a year. It just happened. 

Bato had always been gay. It was something that everyone knew, Hakoda included. Just like he was bi, Bato was gay. They just  _ were _ .

When Hakoda was nineteen, he confessed his love. The sun was finally setting after weeks of the Midnight Sun, and the sky was streaked with colors and spirits. Hakoda took Bato to the peak of their glacier, and he told him how he felt.

He told him how the sun could never shine as brightly as Bato did, and how the moon would never be as beautiful as Bato was, and how the ocean could never know the depths of Hakoda’s love for him, because his love was bigger than La herself.

When Hakoda was nineteen, Bato confessed  _ his  _ love.

They were together, after that. They were happy together, perfect for one another. They built their first igloo together, they fought together, they trained together. Hakoda picked out the perfect bone to carve a betrothal necklace with. 

But. 

The Tribe was dying.

There were hardly enough warriors, both men and women, to keep them alive. There had to be a next generation, and Hakoda and Bato couldn’t provide that next generation together.

When Hakoda was twenty three, he broke his own heart.

It was a mutual decision. They both agreed that Hakoda had the capacity to love both men and women, and Bato could only find it in his heart to love men. They loved each other so much, but they loved their Tribe more.

Hakoda built himself a new igloo, but he kept the betrothal necklace. He couldn’t bear to get rid of it.

When Hakoda was twenty eight, Bato stood at his side while he married Kya. He called her the love of his life, but when he looked over to smile at his best friend, his hand moved in his pocket to hold tighter to the betrothal necklace that Bato had never gotten.

Three years after that, Sokka was born.

After another two, Katara came along as well.

Bato stayed by Hakoda’s side the whole time. When he became Chief, when his father fell ill, when the Fire Nation kept coming.

When the waterbenders died out.

When Katara first bent.

When the Southern Raiders came.

When Kya left.

Through it all, Bato was there. 

When Kya died, Bato was there for Hakoda. He picked him up from where he’d fallen next to his wife’s body, and he carried him away from his igloo, to the place where Bato himself lived. The igloo that they’d shared, all those years before. 

When Hakoda was forty four, he went to sea.    
  


Bato went with him.

They shared a cabin, on the ship. When a warrior lost his bedroll to bandits, Hakoda did the right thing and gave him his own. When he got back to their cabin that night, and Bato offered to share, why would Hakoda have said no?   
  


When Hakoda was forty four, he learned that Bato still slept curled up on his side, and he still curved perfectly around Hakoda, even after all those years.

When Hakoda was forty five, he confessed his love for Bato all over again.

When Hakoda was forty five, he found out that Bato still loved him too.

When Hakoda was forty five, he finally gave Bato the betrothal necklace that he’d carved, all those years ago.

Then, when Hakoda was forty seven, they were separated.

Bato sent him a letter, telling him all about Katara, and Sokka, and the Avatar (wait, what?), as well as the prince of the Fire Nation, and his weird mole thingy.

They were reunited not long after that, and Hakoda made a routine of rubbing salve into Bato’s scars every night before they slept, paying special attention to the ones by his betrothal necklace.

They met back up with his children for the Day of the Black Sun, and he was finally able to see just how much they’d grown in the three years he’d been at sea. He saw how Katara had mastered her element, how she was able to control it at a moments notice, so smooth and tranquil. He saw how Sokka had matured into a young man, how he could fight and plan and invent.

His children weren’t children any longer.

Then they were separated again. His children went to safety, and Hakoda went with his men to a prison in the Fire Nation. 

A few weeks later, Hakoda went to the Boiling Rock.

A day after that, he went to the Western Air Temple.

Bato was still in the Fire Nation Capital prison.

When he was forty seven, Hakoda met the Fire Nation prince for the first time. Zuko was frail and skinny, with an uneven haircut and a tendency to flinch.

He was not at all what Hakoda expected.

Days after that, he was separated from his children once more.

Weeks after that, hiding away in the Earth Kingdom colonies, he heard the news that the war had ended with Sozin’s comet. The Avatar and his friends were in Caldera City, at the palace.

Bato was in Caldera City.

When he was forty seven, Hakoda went to Caldera City.

He went with now Fire Lord Zuko to the prison, and he led Zuko towards where the war prisoners were held, and he finally, finally, finally saw Bato again.

He was there, as beautiful as ever, Hakoda’s betrothal necklace still hanging around his neck. He looked frail and worn, but he smiled as much as he could when Hakoda opened up the cell, and leaned onto his fiance as they walked to the palace.

They went home a week later.

They built a new igloo. With Katara and Aang’s help, they built a new watchtower and a new wall, and the village was full again, sailors and warriors returned from the sea, some young people from the North coming down to help rebuild and repopulate.

Two years later, and Hakoda was planning his second wedding. Katara and Aang were traveling the world, Sokka was in the Fire Nation, hard at work with Zuko as an Ambassador and an Engineer, and Hakoda was leading the Tribe through a new age of prosperity, with Bato by his side.

It was good. They were good.

But.

Hakoda still hadn’t told Sokka and Katara about Bato. He knew that they loved him in the form of their father’s best friend, but he didn’t want them to hold any resentment against Bato. He didn’t want them to think that he was replacing Kya, because he wasn’t.

Bato was Bato and Kya was Kya.

Bato was the love of his life, and, no matter how much he loved Kya, Bato had always been there. Bato was there to pick up the pieces, and Bato was there to support him while he supported the Tribe, and Bato was there to share his bedroll when they were short one.

And Hakoda wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. 

So he had to tell his children.

There was one week when their visits overlapped, and he decided to seize that moment and tell both of them at the same time.

“It’ll be fine,” Bato had told him the night before while they were in bed.

“I don’t want them to think that I’m trying to replace Kya,” Hakoda sighed, rolling over to face him. “They don’t even know that we were together when we were younger. I mean, you know how Katara gets about  _ anything  _ that has to do with her mother. I don’t want her to resent me, or  _ you _ , for that matter. And as for Sokka,” Here, he paused.

As for Sokka.

“Tui and La, I don’t  _ know  _ how Sokka is going to react.” Hakoda breathed, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead against Bato’s shoulder. “You know him, he hardly ever shows any emotions that aren’t happiness. I haven’t seen him cry since his mother died, and that was almost ten years ago.  _ I  _ don’t want to be the thing that makes him cry.”

Bato had hummed low in his throat, and then reached over to snuff out the candle that lit the room, before wrapping both arms around Hakoda. “Stop worrying,” he whispered. “It’ll all be fine, I promise.”

The next day, while Bato sat in the kitchen, carving new bone knives for their next hunt, Hakoda sat down with Sokka and Katara in the main room of their igloo, his hands fidgeting nervously in his pockets.

“Dad?” Katara asked, noticing his fidgeting. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” Hakoda said, “everything is good. Great, actually.”

Katara and Sokka exchanged glances, and Hakoda closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in deeply. “I’ve met someone.” he said finally, opening his eyes to see his children’s smiling faces.

“Oh, Dad, that’s wonderful!” Katara cried. “All that ceremony just to find out that he’s met someone, like it would be a big deal,” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Sokka. He smiled shakily at her, but Hakoda could tell that something was off about his son. But, before he could read too deeply into Sokka’s actions, he had another bomb to drop.

“You see, I guess that’s not a wonderful way to phrase it.” he sighed, looking down at his hands. “I’ve actually known them for all my life. You have too. We were together, for almost four years, actually, back in our younger days, but the Tribe was dying, and we couldn’t save it together. We ended things, and I met your mother, and, well, you know what happened after that, but after Kya died, this person, they were there. 

“And, I also want to tell you that I’m bisexual.” Hakoda said quietly, still staring down at his lap. “It’s something that I’ve known about myself my whole life, but I didn’t think it would be important for you two to know about, because I was married to your mother. But I’m telling you this now, because this person that I’ve fallen in love with, he’s a man.”

For a minute, no one said anything. Then Hakoda finally gathered enough wits to look up at his children.

The first thing that he saw was Katara’s blinding smile, her eyes shining just like Kya’s. “Oh, Dad,” she sighed, “thank you for telling us. Bato will make a great husband.”

Hakoda blankly stared at her, because, what? How did she know?

“Oh, c’mon,” she smirked, noticing his deer-cat eyes, “you didn’t think it was obvious? When you look at him your eyes become literal hearts, Dad.” He blushed slightly, envisioning the way that she looked at Aang.

Suddenly, Hakoda realised that Sokka had yet to speak. He turned his head to his son, who, surprisingly, had tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Sokka?” he asked carefully, his hands clasping once more in his lap.

“I- I’m sorry,” Sokka chuckled, wiping tears from his face, “I’m not upset with you, or anything like that. It’s just- Agni, I’ve been so stupid, haven’t I?”

Katara turned to look at him with a concerned glance, her eyes wide. “Socks?” she asked quietly, laying a hand on his leg. 

“I was so afraid of what you’d say,” he laughed, swiping under his eyes once more. “I didn’t want you to feel like you were giving anything else up for me.”

“Sokka, what are you talking about?” Hakoda asked softly, his eyes wide. “There’s nothing that I wouldn’t give up for you, you should already know that.”

“It’s just-” Sokka paused, breathing in through his nose. “Dad, I’m bi too. And I’m telling you, because I’m in love too. With a man.”

Hakoda sighed lightly, reaching out to pull his son into a hug. Katara wrapped her arms around her father and brother as well, and all three of them sat in silence for a moment, breathing each other in.

“Sokka, that’s wonderful,” Hakoda breathed, pulling back and placing a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Do we know him already? When do I get to meet him? Has he gone ice dodging?”

Sokka chuckled, wiping away the last of his tears. “Yes, you do know him, you’ve met him many times before, actually. I’m not sure when you’ll meet him  _ as my boyfriend _ , but you will, at some point. And no, I don’t think he’s gone ice dodging.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me, you dunce!’ Katara exclaimed, whacking Sokka on the back of his head. “Did we meet him on the road? Is he from the North? Or the Earth Kingdom?”

“Uh, you could say that we met him on the road, I guess,” Sokka mumbled, thinking back to the first time that he and Zuko met. “He’s actually from the Fire Nation.”

Katara grinned at her brother. “Oh, I see. Is it a workplace romance?” she whispered conspiratorially, wiggling her eyebrows.

Sokka mimed gagging, shaking his head violently. “Oh, Tui, Katara, please, no.” he moaned, dragging his hands down his face. “I mean, technically, yes, we do work together, but no, it’s not like  _ that _ .”

Katara giggled into her hands, and Sokka kicked her under the table, placing his head in his hands. Hakoda chuckled at the two of them, his children, grown up and matured and intelligent.

Everything was good.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope yall liked this chapter! the second one should be up soon, possibly even later tonight! I've already got a good amount of it written, so hopefully I can get it up soon! pleasepleaseplease leave a comment and kudos, if you feel so inclined. this is a new writing style for me, and I'd love to hear what you think!
> 
> xx,  
> CJ


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